Cable Wrist Curl

What you'll gain

• Isolates wrist flexion, which most pulling exercises never train directly.

• Builds the forearm flexors that close the grip on bars and handles.

• Cable tension stays even across a very short range of motion.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. 1

   Attach a straight bar to a low pulley and set a light weight.

2. 2

   Stand facing the stack with your feet about hip width apart.

3. 3

   Grip the bar underhand at shoulder width and let your arms hang down in front of your thighs.

4. 4

   Let the bar drop by bending only at the wrists, allowing it to roll toward your fingers.

5. 5

   Close your grip and curl your wrists upward, squeezing the forearms at the top.

6. 6

   Pause briefly, then lower under control and repeat for reps.

Common Mistakes

• Loading too heavy, which turns the rep into an elbow curl and hides the wrist range.

• Moving the elbows away from your sides, so the forearms move and the wrists stay locked.

• Skipping the roll to the fingers, which leaves out the grip closing part of the movement.

• Bouncing at the bottom, which loads the wrist joint rather than the flexors.

About This Exercise

The cable wrist curl is performed standing with the arms hanging by your sides and a bar held underhand from a low pulley, so the only joint that moves is the wrist. Letting the bar roll toward the fingertips at the bottom and then closing the hand and flexing the wrist trains the forearm flexors that both bend the wrist and shut the grip. The cable holds a steady pull at every point in that short travel, which matters because the range itself is only a few inches. Light weight and a deliberate pause at the top do far more here than heavy loading. For a library this is the dedicated forearm clip most catalogs skip. It fits grip and forearm accessory blocks, climbing and racket sport programs, and elbow rehab content where controlled wrist flexion is the whole point.

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